tax increase

Ferguson city leaders, struggling to balance a budget decimated by fallout from unrest that followed the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, will ask voters in August for a second tax increase.

Voters in the St. Louis suburb in April approved a half-cent sales tax increase and narrowly defeated a property tax increase.

The Ferguson City Council at a special meeting Sunday voted to put on the Aug. 2 ballot a proposal to raise the city utility tax by 2 percent.

State lawmakers are considering several proposals to improve infrastructure that could hit Missourians' wallets.

One proposal could require residents to pay a higher sales tax in order to pay for transportation projects, and another would let electric utilities seek a surcharge to recoup costs from infrastructure projects.

A third measure would call for issuing several hundred million dollars in bonds to fund improvements on college campuses and state facilities. Taxes that Missourians pay could go to paying off the bonds.

A ballot measure that would raise Missouri’s cigarette tax is starting to catch fire.

Leaders of the effort to raise the state’s tobacco tax are making stops across Missouri through the end of this week, to places like here to Lee’s Summit, Mo. on a yellow school bus.

Misty Snodgrass, with the American Cancer Society says a jump in the state’s cigarette tax, currently the lowest in the country, to 90 cents a pack would help reign in the state’s high smoking rate while directing half of that added tax revenue into schools.

Columbia tenants may see a slight increase in rent in the coming years. City council members approved an amendment to the city code that raises the rates for rental inspections that landlords are required to schedule. Stanley Diaz owns properties throughout the city and says he might have to raise rates because of the increased inspection costs.

A proposition on the November ballot that aims to increase the tobacco tax is picking up support. Missouri’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education is the latest to advocate for higher tax rates on cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Proposition B represents the third attempt to increase Missouri’s low tax rate on tobacco products, and while previous proposals were turned down by the state’s residents in 2002 and 2006, this year’s version has steadily gained support.